Accused spy's lawyers seek phone data

CHICAGO — Lawyers for a Des Plaines man accused of being an Iraqi spy want to know if his phone calls were recorded under the Bush administration's controversial domestic surveillance program.

An attorney for Sami Khoshaba Latchin sent a letter this week to federal prosecutors, asking "whether the Bush administration has authorized the interception of Sami Latchin's communications without a court order."

The Jan. 3 letter also asks whether Latchin is now under surveillance.

Under the domestic spying program, the National Security Agency intercepted certain telephone calls and e-mails without the usual court approvals.

"If there are [recorded] calls out there, we want to know," Mary H. Judge, Latchin's defense attorney, said Friday. "There are a lot of problems with the system."

A spokesman for U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald declined to comment.

Latchin is accused of being an Iraqi sleeper spy in the U.S. from 1993 through mid-2002. Prosecutors allege that he traveled to Tunisia, Jordan, Iraq and other countries to meet with his spy handlers from 1994 to 2002.

Prosecutors have already turned over hundreds of hours of Latchin's calls that authorities recorded from fall 2003 to summer 2004, Judge said.

Judge said those wiretaps were properly authorized under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

But Judge said she now wants to know whether authorities may have made other recordings under the domestic surveillance program.